There is no creative agency, and there is no social media agency.
Badri Beriwal, Bata IndiaWhenever a company announces a major AI initiative, the first question is usually about jobs.
At Bata, Beriwal insists the technology has changed workflows more than headcount.
According to Beriwal, Bata no longer works with creative agencies on a retainer basis.
"Maybe tomorrow the long term planning function will also have an AI tool that plans your competitive landscape and puts your positioning versus where your brand stewardship should be."
Ever since AI came on to the scene, marketers have treated it much like a particularly talented intern. They have handed it isolated assignments, asked it to generate images, write copy, create campaign films or experiment with digital avatars, then sent it back to the sidelines.
Brands such as Coca-Cola, Hyundai, and Tata Consumer Products have all experimented with AI-led creative executions in recent memory. Yet in most cases, AI remained a tool within the marketing process rather than the process itself.
Bata India is attempting something altogether different.
The footwear retailer has rebuilt its marketing operation around autonomous AI agents that write briefs, generate creative assets, review outputs, publish content, manage consumer interactions, and learn from campaign performance.
Working with AI marketing technology company Zocket, Bata says every stage of its creative workflow that once involved agencies, production houses, and social media partners now runs through an AI-powered system overseen by its in-house marketing team.
"100 percent of our creatives are now created without any agency. There is no creative agency, and there is no social media agency. It's just Zocket, the bots, models, the brand guidelines, and the feedback loop that exists," says Badri Beriwal, chief strategy officer and chief business development officer at Bata India.
A retail and FMCG veteran with more than two decades of experience, Beriwal has held leadership roles at Britannia, Bharti Walmart, GSK Consumer Healthcare and Veeba before joining Bata in 2023.
Badri Beriwal, Bata India
Whenever a company announces a major AI initiative, the first question is usually about jobs. At Bata, Beriwal insists the technology has changed workflows more than headcount.
Internally, campaign managers still own brand strategy and remain responsible for ensuring creative output aligns with brand objectives. What has changed is the role agencies once played between the brief and the finished campaign.
"The team has been quite agile to adapt to it," Beriwal says. "While the bot learns, humans learn as well."
He describes the shift as a capability enhancement rather than a workforce optimisation.
Agencies out, marketers stay
Agency relationships, however, have changed dramatically. According to Beriwal, Bata no longer works with creative agencies on a retainer basis. The lengthy process of briefing agencies, waiting for concepts and navigating multiple feedback loops has largely disappeared.
"We do not have any agency on a retainer basis now," he says. "We've exited all the agencies from a creative perspective."
Agencies are still brought in for specific projects where human expertise is needed, but the day-to-day creative engine now operates independently.
The speed difference is significant. What previously took weeks can now happen within hours. Campaign calendars are uploaded, priorities are assigned and AI agents begin producing assets almost immediately.
Perhaps more importantly, Bata says consumers cannot tell the difference.
"If you see our Instagram feed, you won't be able to tell which images were created by AI, which were actually shot, or which are raw files created by AI," Beriwal says.
That was always the objective. The company was not interested in creating campaigns that looked AI-generated. It wanted campaigns that looked like Bata campaigns.
An 80% cut
The economics of the move are difficult to ignore.
Bata estimates the new system saves nearly Rs 1 crore annually through lower agency and production costs. When asked how much costs have fallen overall, Beriwal's answer is straightforward.
"Almost 80%."
The largest savings come from eliminating traditional production expenses. Campaigns no longer require expensive locations, film crews or large-scale shoots.
"Today, we work with many celebrities and influencers, who have happily worked with us by giving their AI rights," Beriwal says. "We now do the so-called digital AI shoot, and share the visuals with the talent. And they are happily approved."
For a marketing industry increasingly debating whether AI is worth its computational costs, Beriwal believes creative production presents one of the clearest examples of positive returns.
"The cost of token inputs versus the cost of physical environment creation – the difference is significant."
He expects adoption to accelerate as AI costs continue to decline and agencies themselves begin offering AI-powered services and planning tools.
"I think the agency playbook will change pretty fast," he says.
Marketing's next skill
The rise of AI is also changing what it means to be a marketer. Beriwal compares the moment to the arrival of Photoshop. Traditional artistic skills remained valuable, but new digital capabilities became essential.
"The skill requirement is changing," he says. "Upskilling has to be done."
Understanding prompts, camera angles, lighting conditions and AI workflows is becoming increasingly important. The better the prompt, the better the output and the lower the computational cost.
To prepare employees, Bata runs internal programmes that expose managers across functions to emerging AI tools and use cases. Teams are encouraged to experiment, identify promising applications and scale successful pilots.
The reception, Beriwal says, has been enthusiastic.
"My entire marketing team is on this tool. They are briefing on the tool, they are reviewing it on the tool, and they are publishing it from the tool." The technology is also no longer confined to marketing.
Bata has deployed computer vision systems across roughly 600 stores, with plans to expand further by the end of the year. Cameras analyse customer interactions and generate what the company calls an "energy at store" score, helping managers monitor engagement and identify operational issues in real time.
AI is also being used across supply chain operations, legal functions and finance, helping the company make decisions around inventory planning, stock allocation and operational efficiency.
Within marketing, the rollout is already complete. Bata says every campaign and sub-brand now uses the AI-powered system. Even global campaigns are adapted and customised for India's 2,000-store network through AI workflows that once required days of manual effort.
For agencies, Beriwal does not predict extinction. Brand stewardship, long-term planning and strategic thinking still have value. But the campaign-by-campaign execution model that defined much of modern advertising is already changing, and Beriwal questions whether the model is sustainable in the long run.
"From campaign to campaign, I'm seeing a drastic shift," he says. "Maybe tomorrow the long term planning function will also have an AI tool that plans your competitive landscape and puts your positioning versus where your brand stewardship should be."
